I have not posted for a while- have been busy. For several years I have wanted to try a technique that I read of in Model Railroader Magazine by a modeler named Mike Palmitier who built large structures with sheet acrylic / Plexiglas. Years ago I dawdled around with a building or two using this process, but they were only partial buildings as a background and had 2 sides finished- none of the prior structures were viewed from all sides.

Fast forward to now. My railroad has an island that can be viewed from all sides and I cannot hide partial buildings anymore. All structures need to be finished on all sides. Bummer. This does raise your skill level a little though. I hunted down more of Mike Palmiter’s pictures online and while I don’t have the available space as he does, I can get ideas.

His technique uses a shell of Plexiglas covered with either illustration board or picture mat material. He also uses auto pinstriping tape.

For review here, I have two buildings. The one on the left side of the picture was made from Mike’s method and stands about 20″ tall in HO scale. The one to the right is the same height but uses Fomecore as the main structure covered with printed photos cut to size and scaled. The storey separators are a craft product called FunFoam which is sold at Michael’s Crafts. It has about the feel of a cold cup cozy and is a sheet approximately 2mm thick. I make my asphalt from it too.